As the telecoms industry moves into a data intensive market, mobile broadband speed is fast becoming a topical issue, particularly because telecom operators continue to make unsupported claims about the mobile broadband speeds they each offer, which do not necessary march the experiences of their respective customers. And the regulator, whose duty it is to uphold consumer interest, is standing by aloof and watching service providers get away with misleading claims about their data speeds. The issue of broadband speeds and the wild claims telcos make about them, have been discussed in some detail in the past. But the telcos seem to have found a safe haven in the phrase “up to”, to insist that they have never suggested that their customers will experience the speeds they vigorously advertise, but that it is only a probability, a far-fetched one though. Market leader MTN has a modem that it claims offers speeds of ‘up to’ 7.2megabits per second (mbps); Vodafone has a modem it claims offers ‘up to’ twice that of MTN – 14.4mbps. Tigo’s modem offer ‘up to’ half of MTN’s – 3.6mbps. Glo claims to have the modems with the fastest speed. But their customers have a different story. Expresso’s CLIQ hardly quotes the possible speed, but the experience is one of the most lauded on the market. Airtel used to have an “up to” 7.2mbps modem, but recently it has launched new modems and routers, which it claims have ‘up to’ 21.6mbps. If words and phrases have rights, then this phrase “up to” could probably have either gone to court, to the Commission on Phrasal Rights and Administrative Justice (CPRAJ), or at least sought the services of Nana Oye Lithur for abuse of its ‘Phrasal Rights’ by the telcos. Apart from Vodafone’s so-called 14.4mbps modem, which has a stated supposed practical speed of ‘up to’ 10mbps, all the rest are bent on defending their claim that their modems/routers could actually offer ‘up to’ the maximum speeds stated on them, all things being equal. The irony is that in private, each telco admits the stated speeds are shared speeds, and therefore they never promise any individual customers would get the stated speed. But in their respective press releases, at press conferences and in their commercials, the same telcos claim that those stated figures on their modems and routers mean they have the fastest speeds on the market. Vodafone, for instance, told journalists its 14.4mbps was the fastest on the market, and that individual users could even get 10mbps, all things being equal. But recently a Vodafone official backtracked on that and said “we never said our modems have the fastest speed - we threw it to you the media and you passed your own judgement.” That is the trickery in the communication by telcos. The fact is they stated their 14.4mbps was the fastest on the market. It was only when they were confronted with the reality that some customers got only about 300kilobits/second on those modems that they subtly backtracked. But the journalists have learnt their lessons, and would not be used to mislead the public any longer. At the time MTN introduced its 7.2mbps modem, Airtel also had 7.2mbps modems, and Vodafone had a 14.4mbps on the market, and yet MTN claimed its 7.2mbps was the fastest on the market. In fact an MTN official stated that their modem was seven thousand times faster than any one on the market. When Tigo introduced its 3.6mbps, it also claimed that gives the best experience, even though there was MTN and Airtel’s 7.2mbps, and Vodafone’s 14.4mbps. But Expresso’s CLIQ, which actually gives great experience as per users’ testimonies, is hardly promoted with any of those empty gimmicks. But judging from the numbers that the telcos seem to hold on to, to make their claims, how could they even be making those claims, when the simple observation of the numbers show that 7.2 is equal to 7.2; and 7.2 is twice 3.6; and 7.2 is half of 14.4? The answer is obvious, the speeds and great data experience are not in the numbers, but the telcos would never admit to that when it doesn’t suite them. When it suites them, then they claim the higher numbers on a competitor’s modem does not necessarily mean higher speed; and that speeds depends on network quality/performance, and all the blablabla. INDEPENDENT TEST RESULTS Airtel has just launched new routers and modems it claims have speeds of up to 21.6mbps. In their communication about this new supposedly high speed devices, Airtel stated that the other modems on the market have speeds of only up to 14mbps and that the new 21.6mbps from Airtel would enhance the experience of customers on Airtel’s 3.75G network. This writer challenged Airtel to provide test results as evidence to support that claim. They could not provide one. They only went back to the same old statement about shared speed, and that some guy have tried it and the experience was great, in their judgement. Sadly, they did not give critics the opportunity to do the test, or at least witness the test and testify for themselves that the new modems and routers actually give great experience. It was just Airtel’s Corporate Communications guys telling the public what “GREAT EXPERIENCE” some unknown guy was supposed to have had using one of the new modems. But in their communication, Airtel subtly threw in what is called “ash canning” in advertising; stating that until their 21.6mbps device, the ones on the market could go only up to 14mbps. So here again, Airtel is using the number; 21.6 as against 14.4 to say that their modems offer better experience on their network. Could that be another fallacy designed to sell the new devices? The public is smart enough to judge. THE BOTTOM LINE The bottom line is that, as stated above, the speeds and great mobile broadband experience does not lie in the numbers stated on the modems. Anybody could bring in 28.8mbps modems – which exist – but if the network quality, performance and infrastructure cannot support the capabilities of high speed modems, the numbers on the modem would mean absolutely nothing. What that means is that, if a particular network has 3.6mbps modems with a cleaner network quality and solid network infrastructure and performance to support the data and voice devices to reach their maximum capabilities, that network’s customers would have better mobile broadband experience than one which has 28.8mbps with poor network quality and inadequate infrastructure to support great voice, and broadband service. Secondly, as has been discussed in previous articles, telcos could only go as far as controlling the quality of their respective networks; but the myriad of other factors that affect a customer’s broadband experience are not controlled by the telcos. So none of them can claim that once a customer acquires a modem which said 28.8mbps, as opposed to one which said 14.4mbps, it means the customer’s experience on the former would be better than that on the latter. That is absolutely fallacious. The factors that could affect mobile broadband experience include the customer’s location, the congestion level on the tower that customer is access service from, which website the customer is on, whether the customer is just browsing, streaming or downloading; and whether the download is a text, pictures or movies; what challenges the website host might be facing at the time the user is access it, whether the customers is stable or in motion; and many, many others, which the telcos DO NOT control.